USA TODAY Review

‘Queen of the Air’ tells a tale with the greatest of ease

Jensen completed his first draft of his new book, Queen of the Air: A True Story of Love and Tragedy at the Circus, back in the early 1980s. But he hated every single word of it, and concluded he failed to properly capture the remarkable story of early 20th-century circus stars Lillian Leitzel and Alfred Codona.

Thankfully, Jensen never gave up on the captivating story of perhaps the two greatest performers to grace the big top, and nearly 30 years later took another shot at resurrecting his project. His second effort is a moving and deep portrait of two central figures in a largely forgotten chapter of Americana.

Leitzel — she was known by just one name, sort of like Beyonce or Cher — was a larger-than-life pop-culture figure during her day, a moment when it was possible for a circus star to be viewed with the same sort of awe as major league athletes and Hollywood starlets. From high up in the ring, the 95-pound aerialist — with a single hand on a rope — would twirl her body, feet over head, as many as 100 times in a row. She was also a pinup girl whom American GIs during World War I had voted "the most beautiful and attractive woman in all the world."

Codona, a trapeze artist who performed a dangerous triple somersault which none of his contemporaries dared, was a heartthrob in his own right. He would become the second-highest-paid performer in the circus next to only Leitzel, who at her peak in the 1920s commanded an eye-popping $1,200 per week.

But before detailing their fame, riches and turbulent marriage -- their union was one marked by passion, infidelity and plenty of broken china -- Jensen takes his readers back to the circus stars' humble beginnings.

Leitzel was born to a 12-year-old circus performer from what is now Poland. Her mother, Nellie, was raped by the boss of a one-wagon circus she worked for to support her impoverished family. Codona got his start in his family's circus which traveled through Mexico.

Nellie, who would go on to a distinguished circus career of her own after being discovered by an American talent scout, would eventually recruit a young Leitzel to be a part of a family act that was dubbed the Leamy Sisters. But there was inevitably friction between Nellie and Leitzel, who quickly proved to be the bigger talent.

Leitzel would eventually strike out on her own and hit it big, becoming the headliner of the traveling Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. She was adored by millions, hobnobbed with presidents and Hollywood stars, and had a string of lovers and short-lived marriages that would have provided endless fodder for the gossip pages if she lived today.

But from his interviews with the two stars' contemporaries, Jensen learned the love of Leitzel's life was always Codona, whom she first met when both were teenagers performing for Barnum & Bailey in Chicago in 1909.

At the time of their first meeting, Leitzel — who was still performing with the Leamy Sisters — was a star on the rise. But Codona, while he could famously make women swoon, was still just one of many in the circus ensemble.

When they would reconnect nearly two decades later, Codona was finally a star after he became only the second artist to master a dangerous somersault known as "The Triple," a feat that he believed would help him win over Leitzel. It took him a decade to master The Triple and a few more years to win the girl, but Codona's persistence paid off.

Their love story ended tragically in 1931, when the ring on Leitzel's rope gave way during a performance in Copenhagen. She fell 20 feet onto a concrete floor and died two days later.

Codona would marry a young woman in his act, Vera Bruce. A series of falls would cripple Codona, end his career and lead to the crumbling of his marriage with Bruce. A few years after Leitzel's death, an angry and broken Codona gunned down Bruce before turning his gun on himself.

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